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I put bird netting over my 12 ' x 30' run which is what a local pheasant farm has for their runs. Before that I jury rigged chicken wire, which comes in 4 ft. wide rolls, and that had a tendancy to pull my chain link dog fencing towards the inside. A few years back an owl landed on it and...

Please consider enclosing your birds. I know it's more work to clean, but I haven't lost a bird to a predator since my not so good coop cover collapsed and an owl took two hens some 5 years ago.

It's time for you to do some target shooting for accuracy. That's probably why you missed, since the Fox wasn't spooked by you. That means the fox has been eating other people's flocks. Our nemesis is Coywolves and they scoot as soon as they see a human. The local coywolf hunters have to...

Your birds might be hiding under some bushes. I put some chicks out with the flock and I keep them in runs with dog chain link fencing, which they easily slipped through. I found all 15 of those that slipped out. Got my fingers crossed!

Good luck putting them together. I only keep multiple roosters that have been raised together, so that they don't fight for dominance.

Interesting. I try to have my new layers in a flock with my new roosters late in the year. I cannot easily find 2-3 roosters that have been raised together to introduce to the layers. When I introduced the 5 Dark Cornish roosters, now 7mo, they were 4 mo and I had to keep picking them up and...

IF you move her AND you use dummy eggs, put HER fertile eggs in an incubator. If they get cold, and they WILL, (26 F last night, Central Illinois), you will lose them. I think you may be surprised that she can hold her on against the other hens. My pushy hens will force another hen to lay...

NOT to play devil's advocate, but I have had failures when my baby chicks weren't warm enough. Why did you move them to the garage in March? We are in Champaign County and today's 50-55mph winds were just brutal. Tonight it will be 27 degrees and we have a freeze warning until 8AM. You are...

chicksdontmeow, Keep the chickens you like, but if you don't know what breed, I suggest those with pea combs. They can handle our cold winters better.

I am sorry that I didn't take pictures of OUR colored eggs. I have 5 EE hens and 2 SLW hens, blue, olive and brown eggs and they take color differently than white eggs. The colors are so much richer. We had a lovely lavender egg from one of my bluer EE hen's egg. I hoarded 7 dozen eggs in the...

Nope. Learn to candle the eggs.

2 days ago... http://s611.photobucket.com/user/ducks4you_2009/media/All%20Chicken%20Pictures/DSCN2773.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1 sorry, photobucket is sick, again. Today? more mud

Most roosters start growing their combs early. Most hens won't grow a comb until they are close to laying. When you see that razor toothed comb, it's a rooster. I'm not that good at spotting them, but there are some breeds that I can see it at 2-3 weeks old. Just fyi. Too bad you don't...

I would wait to put them together until your own hatchlings are about one week old. You know that you will lose a few from your batch, but you don't want to lose any tiny chicks from those older running around and running over them. They are close enough in age that they shouldn't bully each...

Don't feel guilty. Two years ago I had a makeshift coop, a "wooden tent" built on a pallet, and my 20 some hens suddenly stopped laying in July. They decided to burrow underneath the pallet, and I discovered nearly 60 eggs, many fertilized, and in various states of baby chick growth. UnLESS a...

I'm with THEM! I live on a rural farm property--5 acres worth--and I got tired of bringing up chicken babies IN the house, IN the basement or ON the front (enclosed) porch! TOO STINKY!!! I even kept birds in a stall in the barn for a few years, but NO MORE!!! It smells better in there when my...

Hey, cheapcheap jeep jeep Are you still keeping chickens? I keep birds in Longview.

Don't use plastic on the walls. My 7 layers spent all of last winter in a 4 x 5 x 5 building we made from a pallet. It had a used and cut to fit rubber mat on the floor and a makeshift roost. The door had a 4 inch section open (door opened east) and the walls were 1/4 inch plywood. That was...

Birds cannot be persuaded to accept new birds. You can introduce a rooster to a flock of hens, no problem. You can introduce several roosters that have been raised together into an existing flock of layers. I have done this several times before without fights, and I will be introducing three 5...

I butcher my extra roosters. Call a locker and see if they will do that for you. It's cheaper and kinder and, even if they are older than one year old, when you cook them slowly they are really delicious.